Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Public Domain. Release under the CC BY Attribution license--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/--Credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Send requests to address or e-mail given USC Libraries Special Collections specol@usc.edu
Description
Photograph of a drawing by Edward Vischer depicting General Andres Pico and two old Indians at the Mission San Fernando looking west, 1865. Pico stands among the aged Indians, Alfonso (130 years old) and Agupito (115 years old) who sit around a campfire in the center foreground, as he holds the hand of his adopted daughter, Anita Gale. Another small group of Indians sit nearby. In the background, three men are visible on horseback with the mission buildings behind them. The larger building at right has a long exterior corridor whose thatched roof is supported by a long series of arches. Caption reads: "Chapel and principal buildings of the ex-mission San Fernando", "Gen. D. Andres Pico, with his adoptive daughter, visiting the quarters of the aged San Fernando Indians", "The oldest surviving mission Indians of California, Alifonso, 130 (by computation), Agapito, 115, the first adult gentile baptized here (then a grandfather), their wives also are 100 years [...]". "Vischer, artist and photographer, emigrated to Mexico from his homeland of Germany at the age of nineteen, and was associated with the commercial house of Heinrich Virmond, for whom he was often the supercargo during trading voyages and under whose employ he traveled to California in 1842, where he eventually settled in San Francisco. At the age of fifty, Vischer became intensely interested in sketching and painting. He combined with these interests a skill in photography. It was his practice to make rapid sketches on the spot of scenes which interested him, the big trees, the ruins of Missions, or mining operations, and later to work up these sketches in water colour, pencil, pen or crayon. Subsequently he reproduced his drawing, first by lithography and later by photography. Using these techniques, Vischer published portfolios of drawings: The Mammoth Tree Grove (1862), The Washoe Mining Region (1962), Pictorial of California Landscape (1870), and Missions of Upper California (1872)." -- Collections Page of the Honnold/Mudd Library.
Type
image
Format
5 photographs : photonegatives, photoprints, b&w 21 x 26 cm., 10 x 13 cm. negatives (photographic) photographic prints photographs art
Art--Vischer, Edward Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana Missions, Spanish Indians of North America Soldiers Pico, General D. Andres Vischer, Edward San Fernando Rey de Espana Mission Religious facilities
Time Period
1865
Place
California Los Angeles Mission Hills USA
Source
1-130-44; 1-189- [Microfiche number] 2982; 7209 [Identifying number] CHS-2982; CHS-7209 [Call number] California Historical Society [Contributing entity]
If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.
Share your story
Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.
